Key Tips to Hosting Football Sundays and our Wetbar Reveal

Hi everyone! Welcome to our WETBAR Reveal!! It’s the first part of our home that is actually pretty complete, and it’s seriously my favorite tile design in the house. Anyways, I thought this post would be a great way to get the hosting and entertaining section of my blog more up to speed. I can’t wait to start sharing my key tips to having guests, food and drink recipes, hosting cheat sheets and more with you guys. Keep reading for a major new section of WW+W I’m introducing!

As many of you know I do have some pro experience in party planning/hosting/throwing etc. Though I left the pro part in the past, it is still something I genuinely love to do. This blog is about making things beautiful, even the day to day things, or week to week in this case. Football Sundays are no exception, and though they are very chill I do not take hosting them lightly. These are my three key tips to hosting Sunday game days.

Key Tips to Hosting Any Size Gathering

The last three seasons our apartment has been the hub for our friends to come over in their cozies and eat and watch the games. There’s nothing like beating the Sunday scaries with good food and good company. Joe and I genuinely enjoy hosting them. Plus, we get really into the cooking and providing drinks and we both just love having a full home.

I have a feeling this year is going to be a bit more crowded. We have more seating, so, come on over because the more the merrier! No more limiting invites because we ran out of couch seats!

I figured I’d take you along as I start to prepare for these weekly mini fêtes (my favorite word, I had to).

There it is, the most important of all the key tips to hosting:

Be Prepared

I can’t stress this enough! Prepare, prepare, prepare! This can mean so many things. From buying extra to making lists, people prepare in different ways. I’ve learned that what works for me might not work for someone else, but, it’s worth sharing right? It seems obvious, but it’s definitely the most important of all the key tips to hosting any gathering.

I’m a list girl, plus with my experience in catering, I have an idea of how far food will go. First, I really try to gather who is guaranteed to be coming. Then, I add in a few extra heads to get my “shopping number”. Then, I’ll start to come up with a food and beverage game plan depending on this number. I try to make dishes that make sense for the number and obviously what goes with the vibes. There are always so many ways to mix and match what you’re feeding your guests, I am anal enough that they always make sense together.

Pro Tip: Coming from a vegetarian it’s really considerate to have a menu that is well balanced. All of mine have a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free option, even if it’s fruit or a vegetable that is vegan. Make sure there is SOMETHING!

Introducing:

The Ultimate Guide for the Millennial Host

This “guide” will transform the nature of this blog. It will be a series of PDF’s, videos, tips and tricks for modern day hosting. Life is fast, but the old school values of home and hosting need to be brought to light again. More about the Millennial Host in a post coming soon.

This Week: My Football Sunday Menu Cheat Sheet

In the meantime, the first release is this Football Sunday’s Cheat Sheet. This cheat sheet has all of my favorite football Sunday menus. Joe and I have our specific recipes or techniques for most of these dishes but I linked a ton of my favorite recipes I’ve found through Pinterest! It’s an amazing cheat sheet for creating your shopping list. The menu is important and so is mixing it up for your guests. I’m here to help.

Make Your Guests Feel at Home

Okay so my key tips to hosting might be seeming obvious, like this one, but it’s harder than you think. You don’t want to make your guests feel awkward in your home, ever. However, if you aren’t actively trying to make people feel comfortable, you might actually be doing the opposite of what you want to accomplish.

To ensure you aren’t the latter, reiterate sayings like “help yourself” and “feel free” over and over again, especially if they’ve never visited before. I also find that if you let people do things themselves they become more relaxed. If they want to bring their dirty dish or throw something out, don’t be too in their face about taking it for them or cleaning up behind them. Personally, I am happy to throw out my own garbage in someone’s kitchen or find my way to the restroom because in a weird way it means they are more trusting of me being in their home. In my house, I’m going to do the dishes and clean etc, but little actions like those allow people to shake off the feeling that they are guests and you are the host. That hard line goes away and they feel at home.

Extra Entertainment

Yes, the Football Sundays come with entertainment be that there are one million games all day long, fantasy leagues to keep up with and friends all around. However, a little extra entertainment is the cherry on top of a party. Of all the key tips to hosting this is the most overlooked because one can assume, it’s a party, therefore, it is entertaining. However, to be a good party, you have to give it a little somethin’ somethin’. Some of my favorite ideas to ramp up the vibes are:

Drinking games. Or non-drinking games.

Entertainment systems. Get loud.

Keep music on in the kitchen (or everywhere if this is a party without TV).

Cigars for the guys. Hookah for the girls.

A fun dessert! Ice cream bars, DIY anything type food.

Polaroid station. These moments won’t last forever but the memories will.

Okay, on that corny note, I’m out! Let me know what you think of my menu cheat sheet but in the meantime, throw a party! Any reason is a good reason to throw a party! Plus, you’re set with my key tips to host Football Sunday ANYTHING!